Lake Natoma bike trail still closed after 2017 rockslide

A popular bike and walkway on a stretch of the American River Parkway Recreation Trail is still shut down more than a year after a rockslide blocked it.

Heavy rains in 2016 and early 2017 made the already unstable cliffside on the north side of Lake Natoma worse. Then in January and February of 2017, large rocks and debris came crashing down.

“If you take a look at the hillside, there’s still a lot of very large fractures with large chunks of rocks that can still come down,” said Richard Preston, Folsom Sector superintendent of California State Parks, Gold Fields District. “So our plan is to try to scale, using techniques to bring those other rocks down before we clean up and repair the trail.”

Repairs were originally scheduled for Summer 2017. Initially, Caltrans was asked to assist, but Preston said they didn’t have the the staff, time or geological expertise.